This thesis focuses on the development of an operational and theoretically eclectic concept of psychological well-being. A comprehensive research strategy was employed to examine various personality factors thought to be components of psychological health (i.e., the basis of the proposed concept). The general approach involved four major phases: (1) the clustering of various variables and identification of underlying key factors purported to be related to psychological health based on the writer's clinical experience and review of the mental health literature, (2) the formulation of an ~ priori concept of psychological well-being based on the operational definition of those factors, (3) the construction of an inventory designed to examine the proposed concept, and (4) the interpretation of the results and their implications for the development of the overall concept based on the examination of the factorial structure, validity and reliability of the inventory. The"a posteriori concept" evolved out of this process. The results of the present study indicate that the most valid and reliable factorial components of psychological well-being are self regard,interpersonal relationship, independence, problem-solving, assertiveness,reality testing, stress tolerance, self-actualization and happiness; social responsibility and flexibility emerged as questionable components of the a posteriori concept. The inventory which was designed to study the concept was successful in significantly differentiating various levels of psychological health. This way of conceptualizing and assessing psychological well-being has potential applicability for mental health practitioners and researchers.

A questão que permeou este trabalho de tese consistiu em interrogar em que medida os grupos terapêuticos Projetos de Vida, oferecido às mulheres em sofrimento psíquico, dão suporte à sua (re) inserção social, sobretudo no que diz respeito à vida laborativa. Os referenciais teóricos adotados para a contextualização desta temática abrangeram as determinações do Ministério da Saúde quanto à perspectiva psicossocial dos atendimentos aos usuários dos CAPS e as elaborações teóricas de Hannah Arendt sobre ação humana no contexto da vida ativa. Este trabalho teve como objetivo compreender como as usuárias dos CAPS de transtorno mental de Recife-PE experienciam os grupos terapêuticos Projetos de Vida e de que modo tais experiências repercutem no seu viver cotidiano. Teve como objetivos específicos: descrever o trabalho realizado no grupo; contextualizar o ambiente sociofamiliar e laborativo vivenciado pelas usuárias participantes da pesquisa; descrever a experiência prática cotidiana das usuárias a partir das vivências nesse grupo e a repercussão no seu cotidiano. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, cujas narrativas foram realizadas através de entrevista aberta, questionário sociodemográfico e consulta a documentos (prontuários e livro de registro de grupos). Para a compreensão das entrevistas, utilizou-se o Interpretativismo de Wilhelm Dilthey, buscando-se compreender os sentidos dados a estes grupos terapêuticos em suas vidas laborativas. No processo de desvelamento, os relatos obtidos abrangeram aspectos comportamentais e emocionais, com destaque a: melhor preparação e conscientização para a convivência sociofamiliar; melhorias no âmbito pessoal de bem-estar e sentimentos de acolhimento, valorização e oportunização de conforto e segurança emocional no convívio interpessoal. Houve, também, relatos de que as vivências contribuíram para o retorno à vida laborativa profissional e para o fornecimento do resgate da reabilitação e reinserção social. As narrativas indicam, ainda, que a maioria dos processos interventivos realizados nos referidos grupos é voltada para o estímulo e incentivo a outros aspectos da vida, que não o laborativo, com destaque para o enfrentamento ao estigma da doença mental e a autoconfiança para a reinserção social. Os relatos sobre as abordagens terapêuticas mencionam um razoável espectro de recursos técnicos para o alcance do que se propõe: discussões temáticas sobre saúde e doença mental; reflexões sobre comportamento; passeios terapêuticos e emprego de artes. Os desejos manifestos se voltam para pretensões de retomada de atividades e aquisição de novos projetos, o que reflete a mudança no papel social da mulher na contemporaneidade. Sobretudo, as narrativas apresentadas corroboram a importância do cuidado às pessoas em sofrimento psíquico, bem como reafirmam o pressuposto de Hannah Arendt sobre vida ativa, qual seja, a ação humana torna-se sem sentido se não for voltada para alguma forma de realização. / The question that pervaded this thesis was to examine to what extent the therapeutic groups Life Projects, offered to women in psychological distress, give support to their social (re) integration, particularly with regard to the working lives. The theoretical framework adopted to the contextualization of this thematic covered the determinations of the Ministry of Health regarding the psychosocial perspective of care to users of CAPS and the Hannah Arendt theoretical elaborations on human action in the context of active life. This study aimed to understand how users of mental disorder CAPS in Recife-PE experience the therapeutic groups Life Project and how such experiences impacting their daily lives. The project has as specific objectives: to describe the work realized in the group; contextualize the social-family and occupational environment experienced by the women participating users of research; describe the everyday practical experience of users from the experiences in this group and how it impacted on their daily lives. This is a qualitative research, whose narratives were made through open interview, sociodemographic questionnaire and consultation documents (records and group record book). For understanding the interviews, it was used the Wilhelm Dilthey interpretivism, seeking to understand the meanings given to these therapeutic groups in their occupational lives. In the process of unveiling, the obtained reports covered behavioral and emotional aspects, especially to: better preparation and awareness of the social-family conviviality; improvements in the personal level of welfare and feelings of acceptance, appreciation and facilitation of comfort and emotional security in interpersonal living. There were also reports that the experiences contributed to the return to professional working lives and for the supply of the rescue of rehabilitation and social reintegration. The narratives also show that most interventional procedures performed in these groups is aimed at stimulating and encouraging other aspects of life, excluding the working lives, especially to face the stigma of mental illness and the self-confidence for the social reintegration. The reports on the therapeutic approaches mention a reasonable range of technical resources for the achievement of what is proposed: thematic discussions on health and mental illness; reflections on behavior; therapeutic riding and arts application. The manifested desires turn to intending of the recovery of activities and acquisition of new projects, which reflects the change in women's social role in contemporary society. Above all, the narratives presented corroborate the importance of caring for people in psychological distress and reaffirm the Hannah Arendt assumption on active life, namely, human action becomes meaningless if it is not directed to any embodiment.

Introduction: Resilience is an important trait and mechanism for older adults facing adversity in their later life. Physical activity has been established as an important determinant of mental health among older adults, in which relationship of resilience may play a mediating role. In order to examine the relationships among resilience, physical activity, and mental health in older adults, the current project is designed to conduct three studies. Study-1 aims to use qualitative method to identify the characteristics that contribute to resilience in a group of community-dwelling older adults in Hong Kong. Study-2 aims to develop and validate an age-specific resilience scale, named as "Resilience Scale for Chinese Older Adults (RSCOA)". Study-3 aims to test a model in which physical activity is hypothesized to influence mental health in path mediated by resilience. Methods: Twenty-five Chinese older adults (2 males, 23 females) aged 69 to 100 years (M=80.00, SD=39.08) were included in Study-1. Interviews were conducted to collect information about the adverse events in their lives, as well as their attitudes towards adversity and the beliefs underlying their approaches to overcoming adversity. The transcripts were analysed using qualitative content analysis. In Study-2, a sequential approach was used to develop the RSCOA in three stages. In stage 1, scale candidate items were generated and initial content validity of the RSCOA were explored. In stage 2, the factorial structure of the RSCOA was extracted using exploratory factor analysis. In stage 3, exploratory structural equation modeling was conducted to test the structure. The reliability and validity of the RSCOA were also examined. In Study-3, cross-sectional data was collected from a sample of 293 Chinese older adults [60 males, 233 females; age from 65 to 95 years old (M=76.58, SD=7.02)] from eight community senior centres located in three districts in Hong Kong. Correlation analyses were performed and path analysis was employed to assess the associations among physical activity, resilience and mental health variables. Results: In Study-1, 7 themes were emerged from the interviews: 1). Equanimity- the realisation that life has both joys and sorrows. 2). Positive attitudes towards life. 3). Meaningfulness- the realisation that life has a purpose and is full of hope. 4). Self-reliance- a belief in one's capabilities and the realisation that each person's life path is unique. 5). Social support- which comes from family and friends, health care professionals, staff in the senior centres and others' appraisal. 6). Environmental support- which includes the support from neighbours, community senior centres and government. 7). Spirituality and faith- which can take the form of a belief in destiny, gratitude or religious faith. For the scale development and validation, a pool of 70 candidate items for RSCOA was established with good content validity in stage 1. In stage 2, seven factors, namely perseverance, self-reliance, spirituality, social support, living in the moment, environmental support, and meaningfulness, reflecting internal, external and existential dimensions, were identified and reflected in 27 items in the construct of resilience. In stage 3, the 27-item RSCOA was further examined, by which 3 items were deleted to achieve acceptable internal consistency (α= 0.87) and good concurrent as well as construct validities, and finally a 24-item RSCOA was confirmed. The measurement model displayed satisfactory model fit and proven invariant across gender. Building on the three path models, it was found that significant mediation effects of resilience on the relations from physical activity to depression (β =-.54, p=.002), from physical activity to loneliness (β=-.25, p=.005), as well as from physical activity to psychological well-being (β=.37, p=.008). In sum, the results confirmed that resilience mediates relationship from physical activity to mental health among the older adults. Conclusion: The qualitative analysis found that resilience of the Hong Kong older adults is characterised by internal, external and existential factors. A reliable and valid age-specific instrument for measurement of resilience in Chinese older people was developed. Older adults who are more physically active reported greater psychological well-being and less mental health problems, and the effects were mediated by resilience. The results may be useful for developing interventions that aim at assisting older adults to enhance the positive experiences and mental health in their lives.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:29:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 moema_luzia_barros_moura.pdf: 819033 bytes, checksum: 5936dd6d2174a801c37418e648851d88 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-02 / The question that pervaded this thesis was to examine to what extent the therapeutic groups Life Projects, offered to women in psychological distress, give support to their social (re) integration, particularly with regard to the working lives. The theoretical framework adopted to the contextualization of this thematic covered the determinations of the Ministry of Health regarding the psychosocial perspective of care to users of CAPS and the Hannah Arendt theoretical elaborations on human action in the context of active life. This study aimed to understand how users of mental disorder CAPS in Recife-PE experience the therapeutic groups Life Project and how such experiences impacting their daily lives. The project has as specific objectives: to describe the work realized in the group; contextualize the social-family and occupational environment experienced by the women participating users of research; describe the everyday practical experience of users from the experiences in this group and how it impacted on their daily lives. This is a qualitative research, whose narratives were made through open interview, sociodemographic questionnaire and consultation documents (records and group record book). For understanding the interviews, it was used the Wilhelm Dilthey interpretivism, seeking to understand the meanings given to these therapeutic groups in their occupational lives. In the process of unveiling, the obtained reports covered behavioral and emotional aspects, especially to: better preparation and awareness of the social-family conviviality; improvements in the personal level of welfare and feelings of acceptance, appreciation and facilitation of comfort and emotional security in interpersonal living. There were also reports that the experiences contributed to the return to professional working lives and for the supply of the rescue of rehabilitation and social reintegration. The narratives also show that most interventional procedures performed in these groups is aimed at stimulating and encouraging other aspects of life, excluding the working lives, especially to face the stigma of mental illness and the self-confidence for the social reintegration. The reports on the therapeutic approaches mention a reasonable range of technical resources for the achievement of what is proposed: thematic discussions on health and mental illness; reflections on behavior; therapeutic riding and arts application. The manifested desires turn to intending of the recovery of activities and acquisition of new projects, which reflects the change in women's social role in contemporary society. Above all, the narratives presented corroborate the importance of caring for people in psychological distress and reaffirm the Hannah Arendt assumption on active life, namely, human action becomes meaningless if it is not directed to any embodiment. / A questão que permeou este trabalho de tese consistiu em interrogar em que medida os grupos terapêuticos Projetos de Vida, oferecido às mulheres em sofrimento psíquico, dão suporte à sua (re) inserção social, sobretudo no que diz respeito à vida laborativa. Os referenciais teóricos adotados para a contextualização desta temática abrangeram as determinações do Ministério da Saúde quanto à perspectiva psicossocial dos atendimentos aos usuários dos CAPS e as elaborações teóricas de Hannah Arendt sobre ação humana no contexto da vida ativa. Este trabalho teve como objetivo compreender como as usuárias dos CAPS de transtorno mental de Recife-PE experienciam os grupos terapêuticos Projetos de Vida e de que modo tais experiências repercutem no seu viver cotidiano. Teve como objetivos específicos: descrever o trabalho realizado no grupo; contextualizar o ambiente sociofamiliar e laborativo vivenciado pelas usuárias participantes da pesquisa; descrever a experiência prática cotidiana das usuárias a partir das vivências nesse grupo e a repercussão no seu cotidiano. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, cujas narrativas foram realizadas através de entrevista aberta, questionário sociodemográfico e consulta a documentos (prontuários e livro de registro de grupos). Para a compreensão das entrevistas, utilizou-se o Interpretativismo de Wilhelm Dilthey, buscando-se compreender os sentidos dados a estes grupos terapêuticos em suas vidas laborativas. No processo de desvelamento, os relatos obtidos abrangeram aspectos comportamentais e emocionais, com destaque a: melhor preparação e conscientização para a convivência sociofamiliar; melhorias no âmbito pessoal de bem-estar e sentimentos de acolhimento, valorização e oportunização de conforto e segurança emocional no convívio interpessoal. Houve, também, relatos de que as vivências contribuíram para o retorno à vida laborativa profissional e para o fornecimento do resgate da reabilitação e reinserção social. As narrativas indicam, ainda, que a maioria dos processos interventivos realizados nos referidos grupos é voltada para o estímulo e incentivo a outros aspectos da vida, que não o laborativo, com destaque para o enfrentamento ao estigma da doença mental e a autoconfiança para a reinserção social. Os relatos sobre as abordagens terapêuticas mencionam um razoável espectro de recursos técnicos para o alcance do que se propõe: discussões temáticas sobre saúde e doença mental; reflexões sobre comportamento; passeios terapêuticos e emprego de artes. Os desejos manifestos se voltam para pretensões de retomada de atividades e aquisição de novos projetos, o que reflete a mudança no papel social da mulher na contemporaneidade. Sobretudo, as narrativas apresentadas corroboram a importância do cuidado às pessoas em sofrimento psíquico, bem como reafirmam o pressuposto de Hannah Arendt sobre vida ativa, qual seja, a ação humana torna-se sem sentido se não for voltada para alguma forma de realização.

A doença de Alzheimer é responsável por mais da metade dos quadros de demência e ainda não se conhece a sua cura. Portanto, quando se levanta esta hipótese diagnóstica, os pacientes e as famílias se confrontam com as implicações desta doença, que apresenta um curso com declínio progressivo e global das funções cognitivas. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo geral estudar as repercussões psicossociais que ocorrem na família de pacientes com a doença de Alzheimer. Especificamente, pretendeu-se identificar os sentimentos vivenciados e as necessidades sentidas pela família. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa e a amostra pesquisada foi composta por seis familiares de pacientes portadores da Doença de Alzheimer, que foram atendidos no Ambulatório de Neurologia Cognitiva e do Comportamento (ANCC), do Hospital Geral de Areias, em Recife. O instrumento foi um roteiro de entrevista contendo questões relacionadas aos objetivos e aos dados sóciodemográficos dos familiares. A técnica utilizada para análise dos dados foi a Análise de Conteúdo Temática. Os resultados apontaram que o ato de cuidar de um familiar com a doença de Alzheimer acarreta sentimentos de ansiedade, perplexidade, impotência e tristeza, os quais se intensificam com o agravamento do quadro. As principais repercussões ocorridas no contexto familiar referem-se a uma mudança na sua rotina e na relação estabelecida entre o paciente e os demais membros da família. Quando o cuidado é assumido por uma única pessoa, o desgaste físico e mental interfere na saúde, na vida social e, conseqüentemente, na qualidade de vida do cuidador. Neste estudo, percebemos a importância de que se ampliem a discussão e o conhecimento sobre a doença de Alzheimer, focalizados na família e, especialmente, no cuidador. Espera-se que ele possa oferecer respostas úteis aos profissionais que lidam com o tema, para elaborarem intervenções mais direcionadas e efetivas, assim como às famílias que buscam orientação e ajuda para minimizar seu sofrimento psíquico

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:08:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_solange_maria.pdf: 720710 bytes, checksum: 6c7bab44c7bbe20c23fb72b4d48df529 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-04 / Alzheimer's disease accounts for more than half of dementia and has no known your cure. So when it raises this diagnosis, patients and families faced with the implications of this disease, which presents a course of progressive decline and global cognitive function. This study aimed to study the general social and psychological impact that occur in families of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Specifically, we sought to identify the feelings experienced and the needs felt by the family. This is a qualitative research and the research sample was comprised of six family members of patients with Alzheimer's disease who were treated at the Cognitive Neurology and Behavior (ANCC), General Hospital Sands in Recife. The instrument was a structured interview containing questions related to the goals and socio-demographic data of the family. The technique used for data analysis was the Thematic Content Analysis. The results showed that the act of caring for a relative with Alzheimer's disease leads to feelings of anxiety, confusion, helplessness and sadness, which are intensified with the worsening of the condition. The main impact occurred in the family refers to a change in his routine and the relationship established between the patient and other family members. When care is taken by one person, the physical and mental health interferes in social life and, consequently, the quality of life of the caregiver. In this study, we realize how important to broaden the discussion and knowledge about Alzheimer's disease, focused on the family and especially the caregiver. It is hoped that it can provide useful answers to the professionals who deal with the subject, to develop interventions more targeted and effective, as well as families seeking guidance and help to minimize their distress / A doença de Alzheimer é responsável por mais da metade dos quadros de demência e ainda não se conhece a sua cura. Portanto, quando se levanta esta hipótese diagnóstica, os pacientes e as famílias se confrontam com as implicações desta doença, que apresenta um curso com declínio progressivo e global das funções cognitivas. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo geral estudar as repercussões psicossociais que ocorrem na família de pacientes com a doença de Alzheimer. Especificamente, pretendeu-se identificar os sentimentos vivenciados e as necessidades sentidas pela família. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa e a amostra pesquisada foi composta por seis familiares de pacientes portadores da Doença de Alzheimer, que foram atendidos no Ambulatório de Neurologia Cognitiva e do Comportamento (ANCC), do Hospital Geral de Areias, em Recife. O instrumento foi um roteiro de entrevista contendo questões relacionadas aos objetivos e aos dados sóciodemográficos dos familiares. A técnica utilizada para análise dos dados foi a Análise de Conteúdo Temática. Os resultados apontaram que o ato de cuidar de um familiar com a doença de Alzheimer acarreta sentimentos de ansiedade, perplexidade, impotência e tristeza, os quais se intensificam com o agravamento do quadro. As principais repercussões ocorridas no contexto familiar referem-se a uma mudança na sua rotina e na relação estabelecida entre o paciente e os demais membros da família. Quando o cuidado é assumido por uma única pessoa, o desgaste físico e mental interfere na saúde, na vida social e, conseqüentemente, na qualidade de vida do cuidador. Neste estudo, percebemos a importância de que se ampliem a discussão e o conhecimento sobre a doença de Alzheimer, focalizados na família e, especialmente, no cuidador. Espera-se que ele possa oferecer respostas úteis aos profissionais que lidam com o tema, para elaborarem intervenções mais direcionadas e efetivas, assim como às famílias que buscam orientação e ajuda para minimizar seu sofrimento psíquico